Two Hathaway Bills in State Senate

Two bills regarding Wyoming's Hathaway Scholarship are making their way through the State Senate.

Named for former Wyoming Governor Stan Hathaway, the Hathaway Scholarship consists of four separate merit scholarships, each with specific eligibility requirements, and a need-based scholarship for eligible students that supplements the merit awards.

One bill currently in the State Senate would increase Hathaway awards by 10%, to keep pace with rising tuition costs.

Another bill would allow scholarship recipients to use Hathaway funds to take up to six hours of summer classes, in addition to fall and spring courses. Jonlee Anderle is a Laramie resident, and parent of two Hathaway Scholarship recipients. He says that summer course availability would be to a student's advantage.

"When you consider that twelve to fifteen [credit] hours is considered full-time, and really twelve hours is what they're encouraging, there's now way that you can get even an Associates Degree done in four semesters without taking some college classes over the summer," says Anderle. "My oldest daughter ended up having to take some college classes over the summer and we didn't have the ability, with the Hathaway, to get the financial assistance that we needed. But we struggled through. I think this is a great development."

The Associated Press is reporting that both bills were unanimously endorsed by the Senate Education Committee and the received initial approval of the full senate Wednesday. They face two more votes in the senate.